Geneviève Delaisi de Parseval, a psychoanalyst, is a specialist in fertility and filiation. She has written several books on procreation, filiation and family, including, L’Art d’accommoder les bébés, Enfant de personne, La Part de la mère, Le Roman familial d’Isodora D., Voyage au pays des infertiles and 9 mois dans la vie d’un psy.

What is ageing?
Although old age appears to be an omnipresent theme, it remains relatively untouched. People usually talk about it from a medical, scientific or social standpoint. But not about ageing as a specific psychological process, what it represents and what it enables. Yet we are all faced with the same question: how should you deal with old age? How should you approach this time of life?
When confronted with its finitude, this process can also be considered in a different light, similar to “growing up”. This theme runs throughout Geneviève Delaisi de Parseval’s book. Without denying the reality of ageing, this book goes against negative visions of old age. It invites us to free ourselves from a vision dictated by the problems and difficulties of age. It also invites us to reconsider our relationship with time, particularly through questions of procreation: does having children, or not, help us age?
Old age is all too often reduced to a decline. But is there not something to gain? Does it not enable a second reading of one’s existence, or even to start life over? Is the key question not: how do you remain yourself while ageing?
An innovative approach that provides useful tools to prepare for this chapter in life.